“A story of love. A story of hate. A story that would last a lifetime”

Today, 8:15 p.m.

I hurt. I hurt so deeply, I felt the pain searing in my bones and jabbing like a hot poker into my heart. I knew nothing would make it better as the memories pulled from the crevices of my mind, detailing the bad and the ugly, filling my thoughts with regret as I slipped into the darkness..

When I was eight, my mother was dying of cancer, my father lost his job, and the bank kicked us out of our house. I was forced to move to the strange town of Arlis, Texas where my father and I slept in our car in the hospital parking lot. Desperate and hopeless, we lived on fumes of our former life.

Then one night, everything changed forever. A knock on the car window brought a family into my life that I only wanted to shut out. I hated charity and I hated the Masons. Well, except one. He made it impossible to hate him.

Jess Mason had the biggest blue eyes and ornery smile of any boy I had ever seen. He was a ray of sunshine in my dark world. A boy full of adventure, dragging me across the meadow of Sprayberry Ranch; a beautiful Texas paradise full of horses and tree houses that got us into more trouble than anyone ever imagined.

Jess was my everything as a kid until we grew up and the rules changed. Instead of living happily ever after with a boy full of love. . . I destroyed it. – Alex Tanner

This was not a story I expected but I loved it all the more for it. The Mason List is a beautiful and subtle story. It has a set of the most genuine and easy to love characters even when they fail or disappoint you.

Alex and Jess meet when they are 8 yrs old. Alex is far from the home she has always known. Her mother is dying of cancer and gets put in an end of life hospice in the small town of Arlis, TX. Her father and her are struggling to survive. They have no place to live or money to eat. The only reason why her mother even has someplace to spend her last days is because of the charity of the hospital she is at. One night Dr. Mason catches Alex and her father sleeping in their car and eating moldy bread sandwiches. He offers to let them stay in her mother’s hospital room instead. This is the beginning of “life” according to the Mason family. This also where Alex meets Jessup “Jess” Mason. The only son of the Dr. Mason and his wife.

After some time Alex and her father can no longer stay in the hospital room and they must leave. In this time Jess and Alex have formed quite the bond. He helps her find happiness in an otherwise sad life. The Mason’s know that the Tanner’s have no place to go so they offer them the farmhouse on their land. The beautiful Sprayberry.

We then begin the journey that is their incredible story. A story of not only Alex and Jess’s love but of their strong and beautiful friendship.

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This has got to be one of the best books I have read in a long time. I loved Jess beyond words. I loved him for how fiercely he protected Alex. I loved him for how he loved her above all others because who she was genuinely. He loved her because she needed nothing him but himself, not his money or notoriety, just Jessup Mason.

I loved Alex for her courage and strength. But mostly….I loved her vulnerability through it all. I loved that one of the main reasons she hated the Mason family was because they gave her the world when all she wanted was earn the world on her own.

One thing I want to point out. I hate books that jump from the past and present. I find it annoying and makes me lose my train of thought. Not with this book. I loved it. It was perfect for this story and I could not have seen it written any other way.

S.D Hendrickson is phenomenal storyteller. I would read anything she writes just to experience the type of epic characters she has the ability to create. From beginning to end you will be desperate to continue reading. By the end you will have a epic book hangover but also a complete and utter sense of completion. A sense that you have been through a journey, come out the other end and everything is ok.

A definite MUST READ if you have not done so already.

About S.D. Hendrickson

SD Hendrickson received a Bachelors of Science in Journalism from Oklahoma State University. She lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma with her husband and two schnauzers. Currently, her days are spent teaching computer software to oil and gas companies as well as writing technical instructional manuals. The Mason List is her first novel and it was started during National Novel Writing Month. For more information visit SDHendrickson.com